this post was submitted on 19 Feb 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] rustyfish 89 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (5 children)

Fallout: The solution for the energy crisis is being held back by higher ups for pRoFiTs. WW3 goes hot. Everything gets nuked.

Horizon Zero Dawn: Dumbass techbro is responsible for killing everything on the planet down to the last microbe. Continues with a cultural genocide by deleting all of recorded history in the bunkers. Because he can and he is a dumbass.

Bioshock: A super capitalists wet dream goes plopp. Killing a shit ton of innocent people. (Possibly starting a nuclear war)

Oddworld: Unhinged capitalism destroying nature and enslaving the worlds inhabitants.

Cookie Clicker: Monopoly on cookies turn the whole universe (and possibly every other universe) into cookie matter. Everybody plays along because cookies taste nice.

Please tell me more about how politics in video games ruin video games.

Edit Bonusround:

Factorio: Uncaring, industrial alien crash lands on planet. Starts terraforming it, plunders its resources, poisons its earth, water and sky. Slaughters every kind of resistance from the planets natives.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Morrowind: Several factions competing for power try and use the player as a way to get on top without getting their own hands dirty. Half the main quest line is running around doing mundane stuff that has less to do with proving you're a chosen one and more to do with proving you're a good little bootlicker who won't disrupt the status quo when they hand you the glove of god slapping.

[–] Bytemeister 18 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Or... You do a shit-ton of skooma and mushroom juice, suplex Vivec's harlequin ass and fight Dagoth-Ur buck naked, screaming like a banshee and then break all his toys with that hammer that burns when you hold it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Thank you for convincing me to replay Morrowind!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Skyrim: fascist faction backed or controlled up by xenophobic elves battles a fascist faction of xenophobic humans for ruling the northern part of the world. A viking-like dragon/warrior comes up and fixes everything by yelling louder than anyone else.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 8 months ago

Oddworld: Unhinged capitalism destroying nature and enslaving the worlds inhabitants.

"What do you mean the unhinged capitalist caricatures are making fun of capitalism's drive for profit leading to self-cannibalizing processes??"

For some people, even 'unsubtle' isn't enough.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Fallout goes way further than that.

At every single opportunity, Bourgeoisie are depicted as monstrously evil. Even their most competent, Mr. House, is an unfeeling sociopath who begins the game as a failure for you to clean up after. Every pre-war corporation is disgustingly evil, and nearly every post-war Capitalist is also a monster.

The games also favorably depict Socialist constructs, like the Syndicalist Gun Runners, the Anarcho-Communist Followers of the Apocalypse, and more.

It's not even close to subtle about its messaging, yet chuds still think it's a right-wing game because it satirist the Red Scare, but they take it as straight messaging.

[–] Harbinger01173430 7 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Halo: religious aliens ruin humanity's fun as they kill each other.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Religious Aliens are actually incredibly based, because they have launched a glorious crusade against the fascist chuds of the USMC who get caught with their pants down doing an ethnic cleansing of frontier planets in rebellion.

[–] Harbinger01173430 4 points 8 months ago (2 children)

The USMC would get curbstomped by the UNSC marines though.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Universal Paperclips: dumb AI wipes out humanity with mindcontrol marketing so it can turn the universe into paperclips.

[–] Deway 26 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Jokes on you, inmay favorite Final Fantasy you're a mercenary trying to prevent an evil witch from the future from destroying time itself.

[–] VindictiveJudge 11 points 8 months ago (6 children)

I really like the idea of FF8, but the junctioning and level scaling systems need overhauls.

[–] AngryCommieKender 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Sphere Grid was absolutely broken and I loved it. I stole a ton of Key Spheres from Biran and Yenke, and unlocked Demi for everyone in the party, cause I also had stockpiled Warp Spheres. The entire party became magic users at that point

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Jokes on you, in my favourite Final Fantasy, you're a dream, trying to stop your dad from killing your hyper religious, brainwashed girlfriend who needs to dance whenever dad commits genocide.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You're literally terrorists.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago

The description from the wiki is so good.

Avalanche [note 1] is an organization in the Final Fantasy VII universe. It is an eco-terrorist insurgent group seeking to save the planet from the misuse of mako energy and opposing the actions of the Shinra Electric Power Company.

[–] captainlezbian 15 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Some people have no media literacy, especially when it comes to media they consume for fun.

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[–] Tarkcanis 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Is this what actually happens in FF7? I stoped playing jrpgs after the snes/genesis era.

[–] psmgx 29 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yeah more or less. You're a radical earth preservation group blowing up what are essentially nuclear reactors. You dress in drag for one level to sneak into a mob boss' HQ, and you have a casino's fursona as an optional character. Social justice, preservation of the earth, and how corporations and the military exploit people are explicit themes.

There is also sword fights on motorcycles, skiing, and aliens.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Never seen a mascot described as a "fursona" before

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

LMAO yeah I was just about to say… casinos don’t usually have “fursonas”

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago

Some points are overemphasized (there's only one drag scene, and how furry the furry party member is is debatable, as seen with other commenters here), but it's basically true. You play as a multiethnic group of ecoterrorists seeking to overthrow an evil worldwide corporation sucking the world dry in the name of profit.

[–] mods_are_assholes 12 points 8 months ago (4 children)

... That's not how Final Fantasy IX happened at all...

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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 10 points 8 months ago

My favorite FF is a hallucination after you get stabbed with magic because you tried to overthrow the government. But it has a children's card game!

[–] siban 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Jokes on you, in my favorit final fantasy game you fight the remnants of an old post scarcity society that made a small upsido that nearly destroyed all life in the universe.

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[–] blanketswithsmallpox 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (10 children)

... now if only you left off Final Fantasy and Shinra...

This could be so many JRPGs. Including other Final Fantasies... 6 is damn close too. And the superior of all the Final Fantasies...

6, 9, 13-2. Fight me.

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[–] StephniBefni 8 points 8 months ago

That's weird cause what I remember is a lot of dress spheres.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Which one is this? I've only played Tactics on GBA and FF3 on the DS but your version sounds awesome

[–] [email protected] 22 points 8 months ago (8 children)

The original Final Fantasy 7, considered by many fans to be the best of the series. No idea if the remake is any good.

(I stan FF3/6 and FFT but that's just me)

[–] Xanvial 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The remake is good. Bonus you can see Cloud in drag costume in HD

[–] Sprawlie 7 points 8 months ago

I just finished that segment. Wasn't sure how they'd translate it to the remake (I've lived under a rock to avoid any spoilers / controversy)

I was in tears laughing so hard I had to do it 3 times. glorious. They went HARD

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Oh Tactics is such an underrated masterpiece. I really hope we get that rumored remaster soon. 3/6 is also amazing, super easy, but so well designed.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

"Don't blame us. Blame yourself, or God."

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil 4 points 8 months ago

No idea if the remake is any good.

It is good.

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[–] DrMango 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)

The OP is intended to describe FF7 but tbh it also applies to 13, 12, 10 (although you're taking down megareligion instead of megacorporation), and possibly also 8 and 9 which I haven't played but have confirmed with light research that there are furries

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Woke was never a new concept, it's just a new word that people use so they don't have to admit those aspects of themselves they can't really defend and don't want to admit. It's basically a misdirection tactic to shift the discussion back onto their critics without admitting the problem they really have with something.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Many of these story lines in movies and games still work as propaganda that functions "pro corporation":

A lot of the problems and evil is caused by rules of the system that create emergent behavior. E.g. the rules of capitalism create greedy corporations and lobbying to subvert democracy and funding to create and spread ideology to justify all this.

But a good story needs a villain not some abstract concept with complex problems and solutions. So even "politically critical" stories focus on some corrupt politician or senator or rogue government agency. Once they are defeated or unmasked the good newspapers and governments fix the problem. But that is really a fantasy.

This is more prevalent for movies since games mostly have post-apocalypse settings. But it's still a focus on individual evil instead of the soft unfathomable evil of systems and rules creating evil or ineffective institutions.

[–] Agent641 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Abes Oddysey is straight up anti-capitalist, anti-consumerist eco-anarchy.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

It’s absolutely wild how many movie and game stories in our lifetime have had a villain who’s trying to save the world through imposed means, and the heroes are like, “you kind of have a point, but individual choice is more important”. Which is not dissimilar to what the oil companies’ spin says on how consumer choice is what matters - The wheels of communism must keep turning.

Meanwhile, in The Day The Earth Stood Still, the aliens’ message is “stop this shit, or we’ll stop you”.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Final Fantasy 6 also has the same type of plotline except instead of an evil corporation it's an evil empire and sociopathic clown (Kefka). This game was released on the SNES btw with Chrono Trigger. Do I dare mention Final Fantasy 9? Btw before people ask FF6 was my childhood and I loved that game that's how I know it from the inside out

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